


Champions of the Mushroom Kingdom

by CC_Writes, Infante



Category: Super Mario & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe, Comedy, Gen, Humor, Original Character(s), Universe Reboot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-06 07:10:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16383644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CC_Writes/pseuds/CC_Writes, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Infante/pseuds/Infante
Summary: The life of a plumber can be a real drain. But as Mario and Luigi are about to find out, sometimes that's literal. Far from home and stuck in a world where the pipes don't even make sense, the Mario brothers battle strange turtles, spooky ghosts, and defend their new friend, Princess Peach, against a fire-breathing dragon named Bowser.





	1. We're Not in Brooklyn Anymore

The borough of Brooklyn wasn’t really known to be as “alive” as, say, Manhattan, but it was no less so. Plenty of people down on the street, chatting it up with neighbors, arguing about this that and the other thing. Cars in perpetual gridlock a couple blocks over, honking their horns, drivers joining in the clamor with colorful insults, painting a contrast to the nearly empty street just outside. It was fall and the air outside was crisp and cool, with the faint smell of all kinds of delicious food wafting through it. Like Mario and Luigi’s favorite food, pizza. But inside? In here. Complete opposite. It was stuffy and muggy, unpleasantly hot, the only light came from the crusty, dirty, ground level slit of a window, and the lone, sad, light bulb hanging from the support beams for the floor above.

 

But that was par for the course. When you were a plumber, you plumbed, and you did it wherever you were needed. That was the plumber's code! So what if they were in a sweltering basement? So what if the water heater refused to stop spraying steam all over the place? So what if Luigi was doing his best not to pass out? He was still dutifully gripping the toolbox and passing what was needed to his brother. And so what if Mario was covered in sweat and grime? He was still going to finish these repairs! They were the Mario Brothers after all! Mario Mario and Luigi Mario! They were plumbers! And Plumbers gotta do what Plumbers gotta do! And they were classy plumbers, too! No cracks were exposed while they were on the job because of their dependable use of overalls.

 

“... I don’t think this is working Mario,” Luigi commented after a time, trying his best not to whine, “No matter what we try the pressure is still too high.”

 

Mario, sighed, looking up at his younger brother from where he knelt on the dirt floor, still unsuccessful in getting the heater back on track, “I hate to admit it, Luigi, but you might be right. Still, I don’t like the idea of leaving this problem unsolved.” He punctuated his concern with a firm wipe of his brow, leaving a bit of grime on his forehead.

 

“Maybe it's not the heater? Maybe it’s something from outside?” Luigi offered.

 

“You know something?” Mario interjected, “I bet you that if it's not the heater then it might be something from outside!”

  
  
Luigi sighed as they exited the apartment building to the street outside.

 

* * *

 

The two brothers stood atop the precipice of a manhole that they had cracked open. Were they technically supposed to do that? Was this illegal? Who knows? But Mario and Luigi had a job to do and they would fix that water heater for the sake of the Mario family name. 

 

A gust of dank and musty sewer wind slithered out of the manhole. Luigi took one step back and clutched his nose, “Oh, that’s rank. It’s even worse than your socks, Mario.”

Mario ignored him, probably out of a combination of sheer focus and also personal admission; that was a fair jab. The two brothers began to climb down the slimy ladder leading them down to the sewer below. Occasional putrid ghost winds brushed up against them, making the journey quite unpleasant.

 

“The more we go down here, the more I’m convinced we’re not supposed to be down here,” Luigi fretted, shaking a bit as they neared the bottom.

 

“What’s the worst that could happen?” Mario asked.

 

“Sewer ‘gators?” Luigi began.

 

“Nonsense! You’re more likely to run into turtles down here than you are an alligator!”

 

“Turtles can be vicious! They can bite off your finger!” 

 

“I suppose they know Kung Fu, too…?” Mario sarcastically shrugged off his younger brother’s concerns.

 

Luigi shuddered, “And there are all kinds of dangerous things!” he began to rattle off all his greatest fears, at least at the present moment, “Loose wires, and deadly mold, and all kinds of germs! There’s rats and cockroaches and bugs! Oh! And moss! There’s probably moss too! And don’t even get me  _ started _ on how unsanitary the water is! We’re not even wearing rubber boots!”

 

“Well lookie here! That’s not somethin’ you see everyday.” Mario’s flashlight fell on to a four foot wide bright green pipe, “What’s this pipe do? You ever have seen anything like this, Luigi?” He shined the light directly into the pipe’s opening, “Doesn’t look connected to anything… No water coming out either.”

 

Luigi didn’t have an answer for his brother, “Dunno, Mario, but it has a good taste in color!”

 

“Well then,” Mario rolled his eyes, “Then you shouldn’t have any problem crawling inside to see if it's blocked, seeing as how you match and all.”

 

To Luigi, this was the worst idea anyone could have, but Luigi remembered that their paycheck was on the line, he reluctantly crawled inside.

 

“Hey uh, bro?” came his wobbly voice less than a minute later, “Can you uh, bring me the flashlight? This thing just kind of keeps going. I can’t even see my gloves in front of my face!”

 

Mario’s grunts reverberated from the entrance all the way down to where Luigi sat in the pipe. Now Luigi was engulfed in total darkness  _ and _ being bombarded with Mario’s struggle with his persistent pizza gut. He then noticed that as Mario became audibly closer, he saw no glow from the flashlight.

 

“Did you bring the flashlight, Mario?” Luigi asked in a manner that resembled cautiously reaching out, but with one’s own voice.

 

Mario let out one final grunt and then replied, “Yeah, but the darn thing ain’t workin’!”

 

Luigi couldn’t help but offer a final suggestion in the impossible darkness, “Maybe we could head back and check one of the other pipes?”

 

Mario, who was blocking the way back, had final say in the matter, “We’ll just go a little bit farther and see if there’s some sort of blockage.”

 

“Some would say you’re the blockage, Mario,” Luigi lamented but reluctantly continued forward. Abruptly and before Luigi could cry out in surprise, the pipe suddenly pitched downwards. The two brothers yelled out as they plunged down the pipes into seemingly endless and indescribable darkness that lasted eons.

 

* * *

 

The aroma of cupcakes and cookies wafted through the air as Memaw Portobello pranced around her kitchen tending to a plethora of baked goods. Two young toadlings came up to her kitchen window to enjoy the aroma and maybe snag a cookie or two.

 

“Hey Memaw, when are the cookies gonna be ready?” the toadlings sang.

 

Memaw chuckled as she placed two batches of cookies to cool on the window sill, “Feel free to have some of these, young’uns.”

 

One of the toadlings reached for the cookie sheet on the right but had his little hand swatted away as Memaw added, “And don’t have any on the right. These cookies are special and are for the Princess.”

  
The toadling who had his hand swiped away tugged at his shirt that bunched up around his poochy child belly and nodded in understanding. Memaw then handed him a cookie from the other sheet. They thanked, but before they could scamper off the ground began to rumble and shake. Memaw looked concerned and she rapidly grabbed the special cookie sheet with a cookie at the ready before the very floorboards of her kitchen erupted upwards, tearing the entire room asunder. A gigantic green pipe grew out of the ground spat out the Mario Brothers. Before they could react, Memaw Portobello took advantage of her extensive martial arts training. Memaw Portobello kept in close proximity of the two remain inside any potential guard they could throw up. With a flurry of blows to the chest, shoulders, and biceps, Memaw left the intruders dazed and sore enough to then sweep them off their legs with a quick low, pivoting kick. They were left totally incapacitated as the strangers couldn’t keep up with her agility and speed, so Memaw Portobello grabbed the toadlings, and bolted for the Mushroom Guard.

 

* * *

 

A harsh white light burst down onto Mario and Luigi. The two struggled briefly before realizing that they had been handcuffed. A form sitting across from them shifted his large feet before rising up, “Wakey wakey, boys. It's question time.”

  
  
“Oof... What happened?” Luigi exclaimed, dazed as they recovered from their harrowing fall.   


 

“No, y'two mooks, I ask the questions,” the figure stepped forward to reveal a stern police officer adorned with an ensemble of what could only be described as white cotton briefs, a short-vest with an attached badge, and a mushroom hat with an additional police hat stacked on top. “You two weirdos got a name?”   
  
“I'm Mario and this is my little brother, Luigi.”   
  
“He don't look so little,” the officer replied, already skeptical of the answer Mario provided. Mario looked a bit offended, not only because his height in comparison to his brother was pointed out but also because this officer was no taller than him.   
  
“No, it's true. Mario is my older brother,” Luigi answered, backing Mario up. There was a brief pause before Luigi considered asking another question, “What's your name and what are we doing here?”   
  
“I'm Officer Stool of the Central Mushroom Kingdom Police Department,” he grumbled a bit, a bit peeved that Luigi had actually asked a fair question that he couldn't berate him for, “And you've got some explainin' to do. What were you doing in Memaw Portobello's kitchen?”

 

“I dunno, officer. We’re just plumbers!”

 

Mario nodded in agreement with his brother, “Yeah, we were just fixin’ some pipes, crawled into one to see if there was a blockage… and we fell here.”

 

Officer Stool crossed his arms. Somehow, despite the fact that glowering was his perpetual expression, he managed to furrow his brow even more as he pondered with utmost skepticism and testiness. He spent his time carefully deliberating as to what to do with these two stooges that had wrecked Memaw Portobello’s hardwood kitchen floor. Finally, as he reached his conclusion, he motioned to the one-way mirror. Two more toads came in, decidedly shorter than Officer Stool, and released Mario and Luigi from their cuffs.

 

Officer Stool still looked peeved as he always did, but he extended an olive branch, “Alright, I know everything I need to know. It’s not your fault fellas, you just entered through a dormant warp pipe. Welcome to the Mushroom Kingdom!”

 

“Warp pipe?” Luigi uttered with confusion and disbelief.

 

Mario was equally as puzzled, “So we’re not in Brooklyn anymore?”   
  


“I have no idea what ‘Brooklyn’ is,” Officer Stool flatly stated as he approached the interrogation room’s exit, “but you’re free to leave.”

 

“Leave? Where do we go? We’ve never been to the Mushroom Kingdom before,” Luigi was getting a bit exasperated.

 

Officer Stool massaged his temples, “Alright, fine. I’ll give you a tour of the central kingdom.”

 

Mario looked less concerned, but Luigi still seemed worried about the nature of their journey. Just what was this “Mushroom Kingdom?”

 

* * *

 

As Officer Stool and the Mario Brothers explored the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario and Luigi very quickly realized that this was probably not even Earth. All of the residents of this city were decidedly not human. They all looked like identical mushroom people called “Toads.” They were all short — shorter than Mario — had various colored mushroom hats, no nose, and lived in giant mushroom houses.

 

Mario chuckled a bit, “I guess we know why it’s called the Mushroom Kingdom.”

 

Stool spun around but ignored Mario’s remark, “Alright you two, listen up! This is Toad Town, the capital of the Mushroom Kingdom,” he pointed behind him, “And that’s the Autumn Castle. That’s where Princess Peach sits and benevolently rules these lands… during the Fall”

 

Mario scratched his nose a bit, “Well that’s great and all, Officer Stool, but how are we going to get back to Brooklyn?”

 

Stool began strolling again, “Well, to get back to where you need to go, you’ll need to enter the pipe you came out of. Let’s go to Memaw’s house.”

 

As they strolled to Memaw’s house, Luigi and Mario took in more of their surroundings. Toad Town was beautiful, to say the least. Seas of lush green grass with casually spattered ponds and golden paths presumably leading to other areas in the kingdom. The sky was a light but vivid blue with the occasional fluffy white cloud. Around the capital, which was constructed in a clearing, was an enveloping forest that formed a distinct border for the town. All this color definitely meant they were a long way from Brooklyn.

 

Before they knew it, they arrived at Memaw Portobello’s house, who had already begun repairing her kitchen. They stood on the path going past her house and were able to see that she had her own toolbox, a supply of lumber, and plenty of nails.

 

“Memaw, you could always get some carpenters to come out and fix this stuff for you,” Officer Stool warmly chided, almost as though this had happened before.

 

Memaw didn’t even look up from a nail she was hammering, “I can get all of this done faster.”

 

“I won’t dispute that,” Officer Stool shrugged before turning around and extending his arm to draw the Mario Brother’s attention to the destroyed house. To all of their dismay, however, the warp pipe was gone. Even Officer Stool managed to express some semblance of shock beneath his enduring expression of chagrin. They all just stood speechless as they gawked at the crater in Memaw’s kitchen.

 

A beat of stunned silence passed and then Luigi fell to his knees and began to wail. 

 

“W-... Where is it?” Officer Stool asked over the green-hatted human’s blubbering.

 

Memaw shrugged as she tossed down a fresh floorboard over the hole, “I don’t know, but it was gone when I got back. Good riddance I say! Now, this nonsense will never happen again!”

 

Mario scratched his nose and turned to Officer Stool, “Got any other ideas?”

 

Officer Stool met Mario’s gaze with his furrowed his brow, “Well… the only person in this kingdom that could really help you with that is… the Princess.”

 

Luigi wailed even louder, violently sobbing as he despaired. The thought of never going back to Brooklyn, or eating pizza, or fixing another pipe weighed so heavily on his soul. Mario pulled him by the collar back to his feet and slapped him  across the face, “Pull yourself together, Luigi!” His brother dusted himself off, coughed, and gathered his composure. Mario continued his discussion with Stool, “When can we meet her?”

 

“She’s a bit busy… but I’ll see if I can pull a few strings,” Officer Stool answered, leading them toward the Autumn Castle.

 

* * *

 

Officer Stool led the two Mario Brothers toward the door to the throne room, lecturing them about the intricacies of meeting royalty, “Alright, listen up, bozos. This is where we part ways, but I gotta tell you: clean up your act. You’re speaking to a woman who holds absolute power over this land. She’s nice and sweet and kind and definitely not coarse and rough like sand — which, as we all know, gets everywhere — but you better be respectful. We here in the Mushroom Kingdom hold her with the utmost respect and she’s a career woman, meaning she could destroy you with her glare in a second. Also, when you approach her throne, address her assistant and my cousin, Toad Toad, to acquire permission to speak to her directly.”

 

“Do we call him Toad Toad or just Toad?” asked Mario.

 

Luigi stood in the back, ringing his hat in his hands, “Yeah, cuz technically Mario is Mario Mario, but we just call him Mario.”

 

“Just call him Mari— I mean, Toad. Yes. Just call him Toad,” Officer Stool answered. He then let out a deep sigh and turned around, massaging his temples as he exited the foyer.

 

Mario and Luigi turned back around and stared at the door for just a beat, long enough for them to start wondering if maybe they were the ones supposed to open the door. Almost as if it were an answer, the doors opened up to reveal a diminutive little mushroom man that the brothers assumed must be Toad.

 

A shrill voice, one resembling the sound of a dozen dying cats, sliding their way down a chalkboard, burst out of Toad, “Alright, let’s go meet the Princess.”

 

Mario and Luigi stared at him awkwardly, almost as though they expected something more.

 

“Well, what are you waiting for? The Princess doesn’t have all day!”

 

The two brothers hurried in as the large wooden doors shut behind them.

 

* * *

 

The two were almost blinded by the brightness of the throne room. The whole place was made of spotless white marble and accented in gold, red draperies hung from the walls and there were giant floor-to-ceiling windows of elaborate stained glass, portraying (no doubt) important events in the kingdom’s history. The light that poured in cascaded across the floor in small rainbow-colored shards. A thick luxurious red carpet ran down the length of the place, leading up to a small set of stairs set in a platform, at the top of it was the throne, and on that throne sat the princess. 

 

She was… dazzling and the brothers caught their breath at the sight of her. She was looking over some papers that a small toad had handed to her. She was pale, with rosy cheeks and a delicate pink mouth set in a gentle line of concentration. Her hair was like spun gold and glowed about her like a halo when the light hit it. It put the crown that sat upon it to shame. She wore a dress of pale pink silks and satins with white gloves up past her elbows. They stood there just gazing at her as she read and reread the documents, made corrections, read it again, and finally passed it back to her assistant. Finally, eyes like blue sapphires blessed them with their attention.

 

Mario fell in love instantly.

 

Toad coughed, detecting a modicum of Mario’s infatuation, “My most fair Princess Peach, benevolent ruler of all districts of the Mushroom Kingdom, I introduce,” he glanced at a piece of paper for a brief second, “Mario Mario and Luigi Mario, the Mario Brothers of Kingdom of Brookland. They come with a unique problem.”

 

Princess Peach nodded to greet the two, to which Toad silently and covertly urged the two to return with a bow. Peach smiled and leaned forward, “Greetings and welcome to the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario and Luigi. If I am to be honest, I have never heard of the land called Brookland. What brings you to my kingdom?”

 

Mario opened his mouth to answer, but was nudged by Luigi’s elbow, “Ask Toad to reply, ya dingus!”

 

Princess Peach chuckled and rose from her throne and walked down several steps to greet them up close, “Please, no need for the formalities. I know Officer Stool does loves his protocols and procedure, but it wastes much time for the illusion of politeness. Would you join me as I walk the gardens?”

 

“You’re too kind, Princess Peach!” Mario and Luigi thanked her in unison.

 

As the group moved to the garden, several toad guards tailed them. They kept a decent distance but were still on high alert — less like they were protecting an important person and more like they were expecting something to happen.

 

“So I understand you arrived here via a warp pipe?” Princess Peach inquired.

 

Luigi nodded, “Yes, right into a poor old lady’s kitchen.”

 

“Oh, don’t feel too bad about Memaw Portobello. She can take care of herself — her kitchen explodes more frequently than you’d think.”

 

Mario and Luigi looked at each other and could only blink in surprise. Mario turned back around, “Well, if it’s a plumbing problem at her place we could probably take a look.”

 

“Oh, no,” she laughed, “Nothing like that.”

 

Both the brothers laughed to join her. Of course! Why would that cause her entire kitchen to explode?

 

“No, she’s my court wizard,” Peach explained.

 

Luigi’s laughter faded softly as he realized what was just said, “Wizard? As in magic?”

 

“Yeah, what he said,” Mario concurred.

 

“Of course magic. Does your land not have magic?”

 

“No,” they both answered.

 

“Well, that might pose more of a complication if you want to get back,” Peach clasped her chin with her index and thumb, pondering what to do about these two’s unusual predicament. After a while, she seemed to formulate an answer, “Well, I understand that you probably want to get back to your home. I will convene with my council and learn what they have to say about warp pipes and let you know what we can do. In the meantime, I will grant you stay here at the Autumn Castle’s guest quarters.”

 

“That’s too kind, Princess. I don’t think we have anything on us to pay you, though,” Luigi fretted, but bowed his head, once again nudging his brother to do the same.

 

The Princess smiled and bowed in return, “Nonsense, I will not let you remain homeless — and payment is not required for basic necessities here.”

 

“Now I know I don’t live in Brooklyn,” Mario chuckled with a seemingly conflicting mixture of relief and discomfort.

 

“Well that just sounds awful,” Peach replied.

 

Before the three could laugh anymore, some of the toad guards let out a yell, “They’re here! Sound the alarm!”

 

“Wait! What’s here?” Mario cried out, trying to figure out what was going on.

 

“KOOPAS!” shouted a guard as he sprinted by on his nubby legs.

 

Suddenly, several largish shapes crashed into the garden from somewhere up over the giant stone wall, sending the toad guards flying into a nearby hedge row. The were… Turtles? Was this a Koopa? The comparison was really the best either of the brothers had because that's really all it was. Big macaroni-colored bipedal turtles, with thick green shells, strangely expressive faces and… sneakers? They stood upright and were larger and faster than the toads, allowing them to quickly overpower any resistance. Some toads managed to scare one of the koopas into their shell with a bunch of spears, but that immediately backfired when another Koopa simply punted their hiding friend back at them, knocking the toads over like bowling pins. They were unable to stop the entire squad of Koopa Troopas. Peach’s defenses were being overrun. 

 

“What’d I tell you about the turtles, Mario?” Luigi’s voice shook as he grabbed for his brother.

 

The koopas made a beeline for Princess Peach, with the last of her guards standing valiantly between her and them in an attempt to give her time to escape. Mario watched, frozen in shock beside his little brother, ignored by the Koopas. What were they supposed to do? They were just plumbers! If trained soldiers couldn’t fend off this things, what chance would they even have?

 

“Hey!” Mario finally shouted, feeling a lot less sure than he sounded, “You get away from her!” Mario then turned to his younger brother, “We gotta do somethin’, Luigi!”

 

“Right!”   
  
The Koopas, slowly turned, finally taking notice of the odd strangers. One of them snickers evilly, “Oh? Or what?”   
  
“We’ll uh...  umm…” Mario tried.

 

“We’ll kick your fannies!” Luigi warbled, responding to his brother’s courage.

 

The horde laughed, a few fully facing them now that they seemed to have diverted their attention two weirdos were worth their time, “Bunch of tough guys eh?”

 

The one who’d laughed before sneered, “I think we have time to teach ‘em a lesson, don’t we boys? Betcha the boss will get a kick out of it when we tell him later too!”

 

With cheers of agreement, four of the Koopas joined their apparent squad leader and charged the two lost plumbers. When they were nearly upon them, two of the Koopas jumped and popped into their shells, their friends behind them giving them a firm kick, sending the shells spinning  with deadly accuracy. 

Then. 

 

Then something extraordinary happened. With a shout of alarm Mario jumped, trying to dodge the shell that flew his way, and oh boy, OH BOY, did he jump! High, high, HIGH!  Up into the air! At least a story and a half! The red plumber yelped in surprise, which also startled his brother. Luigi stumbled, having intended to dodge or jump but, in the confusion, he tripped. As he flailed about, he accidentally landed a solid kick to the shell that had been making a beeline for him. Instead of knocking Luigi flat, what could only be described as a miracle happened. The shell was launched back the way it came with tremendous force, crashing into a few of the koopas, sending them flying high into the air and back over the castle wall.

 

Chaos ensued. The shell bounced around, this way and that, conveniently striking each and every koopa with only minimal property damage. Any remaining koopas lost their resolve and so they retreated away from the castle and Toad Town. Some toad guards managed to scramble to their feet and give chase, poking some of the retreating koopas in their tookuses with their spears.

 

Toad, who had hidden behind the princess’ dress emerged, impressed with the results, “Amazing! If you two weren’t here…”

 

Peach, who somehow managed to maintain her gentility and allure all throughout the attack applauded the two brothers, “Toad is right. That was very impressive!”

 

“That’s how we do it: New York Style!” Luigi exclaimed with newfound courage as he picked himself up and dusted his overalls off.

 

Mario was still shocked by what he had just done and so struggled keeping his cool, “W-well, y’know, Princess, we could, uh, help you out while we figure out what to do about that Warp Pipe.”

 

Peach looked a bit skeptical, “Brooklyn style, hmm? I’d say that was probably the first time either of you have fought like that.”

 

“Well, there were some… minor additions,” Mario sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

 

“Well, I’d be delighted if you would help us. What you just saw was an attack by one of the worst warlords of all the land…”

 

“Bowser, the King Koopa…” Toad finished Peach’s sentence for her.

 

“Who’s Bowser?” Luigi asked, curious as to what could bring Princess Peach and the toads so much grief.

 

“Bowser is a large, angry, and arrogant fire-breathing koopa who has been quite troublesome for my kingdom ever since he arrived. There are many nice koopa that live within our kingdom, but the ones who Bowser command are ornery and violent,” Peach explained with the utmost sincerity. A look of determination overcame her, “And maybe with your help we can make the Mushroom Kingdom the safe-haven for all I once wished it to be.”

 

Both Mario and Luigi nodded in agreement.

 

“Well, if we’re gonna be here a while, we’ll do what we can. Right, Luigi?”

 

Luigi nodded in agreement, “Of course, Mario!”

 

Peach smiled with her usual charm and motioned to the two brothers, “In that case, I’d like to commemorate the occasion!”

 

* * *

 

To both Mario and Luigi’s surprise, Peach managed to summon the entirety of Toad Town to the Autumn Castle’s courtyard for this moment. Some of the toads were recognizable to the brothers. Officer Stool, who was trying his best to maintain order over everyone’s cheering, briefly turned to Mario and Luigi and nodded. It was difficult to parse whether that was meant to be an approving gesture, since Stool always looked to displeased, but they opted to take it as such.   
  
Memaw Portobello was also there to witness it; she brought cookies for everyone — more than she could have possibly baked in her kitchen which, of course, was also likely still destroyed. Right? To the Mario brothers, Memaw was one of the most curious parts of their time in the Mushroom Kingdom.

 

Elevated on a platform was Toad, who had changed out of his gold-gilded blue vest and wore a ceremonial garb, which, if the two brothers were going to be honest, didn’t look all that different from his normal clothing. But to each their own.

 

And on the center of the platform was Princess Peach who wore her pink dress, but with the addition of leather belt with encrusted pink jewels wrapped in golden finishings. Attached to the belt was a long, thin scabbard with an ornately sculpted hilt resting on the top.

  
Neither Mario and Luigi knew what to think. This reception was totally opposite to what they had initially been greeted with and, with how supportive Princess Peach and this town was shaping up to be, they didn’t feel as apprehensive about staying — even if there were koopas poised to attack every now and again.

 

“Please, Mario Brothers! Come before me!” Peach shouted, which quickly served to silence the crowd. Everyone watched with anticipation now.

 

The two brothers approached the Princess. As they approached their mark, Toad stepped toward Peach with cushion in hand. Luigi nelt before the queen, removing his hat to reveal his curly brown hair. Once again, Luigi elbowed his brother to get him to join in.

  
“I was gonna do it,” Mario quietly whispered as he shimmied a bit to get into a better position.

 

Peach smiled with amusement, pride, and hope, “Mario and Luigi! You are both new arrivals to our land! You made an explosive entrance in Toad Town!”

 

Many of the toads laughed, with Memaw chuckling the hardest as she passed out more cookies to everyone.

 

“And you have certainly made a few friends along the way,” she said as she waved toward Officer Stool, who stood with his arms crossed. He let out a brief curmudgeonly grunt and the crowd laughed again.

 

“And while there are plenty of new faces for you here today, I have every confidence that you’ll become fast friends! You’ve defended myself and, most importantly, the people of Toad Town from King Bowser and his koopa gang and, as such, I feel like our people can rest easy for the first time in a long while!” Peach exclaimed with jubilance. The princess was as eloquent as he was graceful; her words flowed and managed to capture the attention of even the youngest toads in the crowd. She then unsheathed her sword and tapped the shoulders of the two brothers, “Mario and Luigi, without further ado, I knight both of you as my champions. Rise, Champions of the Mushroom Kingdom and welcome to your home away from home!”


	2. Som-boo-dy's Up to No Good!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been a week since the Mario Brothers arrived in the Mushroom Kingdom. While Mario and Luigi wonder if they'll ever get to go back to their home in Brooklyn, Peach invites them to the national holiday, Spoop Day, in an effort to cheer them up. What they didn't know was that Bowser's minions had plans for the most spoopy spoop the Mario Brothers had ever seen!

Mario and Luigi awoke in the guest suite of the Autumn Castle well-rested and ready for a new day. It had been a week since they arrived in the Mushroom Kingdom, so the brothers were just getting into the swing of things; the castle had a strict schedule and Peach desired everyone to stick to it. In the early morning was mandatory a mandatory morning exercise — similar to the Japanese’s rajio taiso —  for all workers at the Autumn Castle; followed by a light breakfast, much to Mario’s disappointment; morning intelligence briefings, to which Peach invited the Mario brothers to attend in an effort to keep them up-to-date with any Koopa Troopa movements; and other work-related obligations which, for Mario and Luigi, meant exploring their newfound combat skills.

 

Oddly, the brothers felt more energized and were stronger, faster, and more durable than they were back in Brooklyn. Whether or not that was something that happened because of the Warp Pipe or was the result of being in the Mushroom Kingdom, Princess Peach sought to help Mario and Luigi harness their newfound power by ensuring regular training exercises.

 

Mario and Luigi both practiced in the gardens just outside the main palace’s rear patio. The garden was home to hundreds of colorful flower beds, layers of small but dense hedgerows, and a series of elaborate fountains all connected to each other with small, exposed water channels. Mario had managed to run entire laps around the garden’s far-reaching hedges without breaking so much as a sweat, “This is great, Luigi! Back in Brooklyn, I couldn’t even run up a flight of stairs without having to catch my breath!”

 

Luigi looked a bit critical of his older brother, “Maybe if you ever did any of the heavy lifting at work, you wouldn’t be so surprised.”

 

Mario looked a bit put out as he humphed indignantly, “Yeah, well, that still doesn’t explain why I can suddenly leap a story or two up in the air and also jump like two or three times on nothin’.” Mario paused for a brief second as if to consider a new profound realization and, after some further consideration, decided to share his thought, “Luigi, d’ya think I can fly.”

 

“That’s not outside the realm of possibility, but we’ll have to just wait and see,” Princess Peach said as she entered the gardens. She looked pleased to see the two brothers hard at work without having to ride them. The first couple of days the Mario Brothers were in the Mushroom Kingdom had been trying; whatever a plumber did in Brooklyn, it clearly did not include any serious labor.

 

Luigi turned to bow to Peach as she approached, but Mario still had to be reminded by his elbow to pay due respect. Peach chuckled, as she usually did when Luigi urged his brother to bow. Hopefully, at some point, Mario could learn to do that without having to be reminded.

 

“So how’s your day goin’ so far, Princess?” Luigi asked, righting himself after his lengthy bow.

 

Princess Peach sighed faintly; it’s not that she didn’t enjoy leading her people or ensuring their safety, but there were times where she would just rather schlep around the palace in her royal pajamas, “I’m doing just fine, Luigi. How about your practicing your new abilities?”

 

Mario and Luigi both began to bounce excitedly, almost as though they were practicing their hopping.

 

“Princess, you don’t even know how crazy this is. Do all humans do this stuff here? Can you do this?” Luigi asked.

 

Mario added another significant question, “ _Are_ you human?”

 

Peach laughed, as the answer to that question — at least to her — was fairly obvious. Of course, she’s human! But Peach gave the two the benefit the doubt. After all, they had teleported from a drab world with absolutely no magic. For all they knew, she was just a toad in a fancy dress.

 

“I’m human, Mario! Look at me!” she swept her arms down as she gestured to herself. She smiled mischievously for a moment, cocked her head and said, “And to answer your other question…” she then spun upwards and, with a double jump, flew up in the air a bit higher than Mario and Luigi both had. She then daintily floated downwards, landing in front of them with dignity and grace. Both of the brothers were speechless. Peach straightened out her gloves and said, “I don’t know if all humans can do it, but I certainly can.”

 

“I’ll say,” Mario exclaimed. After a time, the Mario Brothers displayed some of their abilities for the Princess. But Mario couldn’t help but ask Peach about the Warp Pipes, “Princess? While this is amazing and all, do you know when we’ll be able to head back home?”

 

Luigi nodded in agreement with his brother, “Yeah, we were in the middle of a job too. Who knows what happened to that water heater?”

 

Princess Peach’s delicate smile faded a bit, revealing a hint of worry, “Well, our best scientific minds in the kingdom are currently working on it. But, after a week we haven’t really gotten any closer to an explanation.”

  
Mario and Luigi looked a bit disappointed, but they assured Peach that it wasn’t her fault. After all, she was doing everything in her power to make their stay more comfortable. But Peach clearly felt that she could be doing more, “No need to feel glum, though. I’ve been meaning to renovate the throne room for Spoop Day. Want to help?”

 

“What’s Spoop Day?” Mario asked.

 

“It’s, well, Spoop Day. Everyone dresses up in all sorts of costumes and spoops each other for sweets of all kinds,” Peach gleefully explained.

 

A dark shadow suddenly overcame Luigi’s face as he realized what that meant, “Do ya mean… H-halloween?”

 

In a surprising turn of events, Mario actually comforted his brother, “It’s alright, buddy. All that’s here are toads and a few koopas. Nothin’ to worry about.”

 

Peach was a bit taken aback, “Is he going to be alright?”

 

Mario patted his trembling brother before turning his head to whisper to Peach, “In Brooklyn, we kinda do a similar thing called Halloween. When we were kids we used to go all around spoopin — as you put it — for candy. But every year some of the bigger kids would always scare poor Luigi into giving over all his candy _except_ for Tootsie Rolls.”

 

“Tootsie Rolls?” Peach dared to ask.

 

“The worst parts of taffy and chocolate fused together in unholy matrimony,” Mario explained with deathly seriousness.

 

Luigi shuddered, “Nothin’ made of chocolate should be unmeltable. Why wouldya make that? Why? Every Halloween: endless Tootsie Rolls.”

 

Peach joined Mario and comforted Luigi as well, “Don’t worry, Luigi. Officer Stool makes sure that no one in Toad Town who’s spooping steals candy.”

 

“It’s alright. I think the worst of it is over,” Luigi said as he regained his composure.

 

“Well, maybe helping around the castle will take your mind off of it.”

 

* * *

 

The process of decorating the Autumn Castle for Spoop Day was actually a lot of fun for the Mario brothers. Mario had split off from his brother to join Peach as she and a few toads carved jack-o-lantern made of large mushrooms. The fact that Princess Peach so frequently launched herself into the thick of things in order to lead her people was reassuring to Mario. If he was being honest, he had assumed that Peach would have been largely stuffy and prim because of her whole royalty thing; but, if anything, Peach was the one leading the way when it came to the physical labor. As she carved away she also managed to help move decorations and ornaments as well as direct the placement of banners, streamers, and all manners of frills and garnishes.

 

Meanwhile, Luigi found himself roped into helping out Toad and the Mushroom Kingdom’s leading scientific mind, Professor Chanterelle. It’s not that he didn’t enjoy the company of either of the toads or that he thought what they were doing was pointless; he just didn’t know what the purpose of their task actually was.

 

Professor Chanterelle had both Toad and Luigi racing around the Autumn Castle hanging up small banners with odd runes printed on. Luigi noticed that even Toad, who was a native to the Mushroom Kingdom and personal assistant to Princess Peach, didn’t really seem to understand what was going on.

 

After the third lap around the palace hanging the banners all over select locations, Luigi decided to inquire about their task, “What are these banners, Professor Chanterelle?”

 

Chanterelle had converted a nearby window seat into a full-blown research table, complete with assorted notes strewn all over the place. She didn’t even bother lifting her head away from the nearest pile of scribblings, “Wards.”

 

“Wards?” Luigi was puzzled. Chanterelle’s single word explanation didn’t really help matters much.

 

Chanterelle was visibly annoyed that her low-effort reply wasn’t enough to satiate Luigi’s curiosity. She quietly huffed, scooted off of the window seat, and scuttled up to Luigi.

 

“These,” she snatched one of the banners out of Luigi’s hands, “are wards.” Chanterelle adjusted her big, round glasses before she handed the ward back to Luigi, “They’re to protect us from any invaders. We don’t want a repeat of last week with some big, mean koopas storming onto the scene… especially during a Spoop party…”

 

“That sounds more like magic than science,” Luigi said as he scratched the tip of his nose in perplexity.

 

Chanterelle buried her face back into her mountain of notes, shooing Luigi away, “There’s a lot of overlap. You’ll get used to it.”

 

Toad finally returned from his lap around the palace, panting to keep up with Luigi, who had longer legs than he did. Luigi shared some of his pile of banners with him, “Chanterelle said that she wants all this stuff placed in the palace cellar.”

 

Toad grumbled a bit as he received a new stack of banners, “Oh, great… Stairs.”

 

* * *

 

By the time Luigi and Toad had finished hanging up all of the necessary wards all throughout the Autumn Castle, it was quite late. Guard patrols were sparse, with most of the focus being on the ramparts and hallways leading to Princess Peach’s quarters. Both Luigi and Toad had a brief break for dinner in between, but for the most part, it was straight work and so they were getting quite tired.

 

Chanterelle, who had continued to order them around the entire time, sat perched at the window seat still studying notes, “Ah, you’re back.”

 

“We’re done! Finally!” Toad groaned, “If I had known it was going to take this long, I’d have had Mario help out.”

 

Luigi rubbed his eyes sleepily and yawned, “I’m gonna head off to bed now.”

 

“Before you do, there’s one last ward: Place it in the Throne Room, preferably underneath the throne itself,” Chanterelle stated as she gathered her notes and plunged all of them in a little backpack. She then handed Luigi the ward and made her exit.

 

Luigi and Toad quietly made their way to the throne room, which was dimly lit by an elegant gold-plated chandelier suspended from the arched ceiling. The moonlight shining through the stained-glass windows was brighter than the light coming from the chandelier, and so it bathed the throne in pale white. After the two studied the throne for a moment, Toad bent down to try and fit the ward underneath. He struggled for a while, giving Luigi enough time to study the rest of the room.

 

Before the redecoration that day, the room was decorated with a series of paintings displaying prominent toads throughout history. Now they had been redecorated to be a “spooped” version, where many of them were warped, haggard, and disturbing to look at. Upon Luigi realizing the redesigned paintings, his heart began to race a bit; he knew it was silly, but something about them felt a little bit off.

 

“Would ya give it a try, Luigi?” Toad asked. “My head is too big to fit underneath.”

 

“Sure.”

 

Luigi grasped the ward and attempted to slide it underneath the throne. As soon as he did, a slight shimmer added to the light shining through the windows. He slid back out from underneath the throne and looked out the window and a faint aura shined around the Autumn Castle.

 

Toad joined Luigi near the window, “So according to Chanterelle, this should protect the castle from any invading koopas. Let’s hope it works.”

 

As the two spun around to make their exit, they were met with foreboding, piercing open-eyed stares of all the paintings. Each and everyone’s eyes had somehow shifted, looking directly at Luigi and Toad as they stood, completely frozen by fear next to the throne.

 

“T-t-toad?”

 

“Yeah?” Toad’s voice cracked as he whispered back.

 

“Those paintings aren’t supposed to do that, are they?” Luigi asked, fighting to get his legs to move.

 

Suddenly all of the mouths seemed to slide or almost melt open, elongating their faces to frightening lengths. A deafening, horrific shriek tore out of their mouths as a series of white wisps poured out, filling the room with a cold dissonance.

 

Luigi finally mustered the courage to move. He quickly plucked a frozen Toad off his feet and, holding him at arm's length above his head, bolted for the door. As Luigi crashed through, they both to let out a shriek— almost as though they had been building up during that whole ordeal. Oddly, as the large wooden door to the throne room closed behind them, the deafening wail behind it died out almost instantly.

 

“What was that?” Luigi asked, catching his breath.

 

Toad picked himself and dusted himself off, “I don’t know, but we need to tell the Princess!”

 

* * *

 

A team of guards led the Mario brothers and the Princess down to the throne room. The group stopped just short of the door before Princess Peach began asking about the details, “I need to be rested for Spoop Day tomorrow night, Luigi. So what exactly happened?”

 

Mario, who was in his pajamas at this point, scratched his belly and agreed, “Yeah, Luigi. You sure you didn’t just get spooked?”

 

Toad backed Luigi up, “Whatever it was, Luigi wasn’t the only one who saw it!”

 

“The paintings already made me feel off, but when we finished Chanterelle’s ward defense system and turned to leave, all of the paintings were staring right at us! They moved and started makin’ this horrible sound!”

 

Mario still didn’t seem to believe his brother and so he reached for the door, “It’s not a big deal, Luigi. You’ve just been workin’ hard and you’re just-”

 

As he opened the door, the shrieking resumed — this time the room was filled with a terribly powerful wind and any items not bolted down were being flung about in a cyclone. Mario, without saying a word, immediately shut the door and backed away.

 

Peach looked concerned, “Hm, this is quite alarming. If Memaw Portobello were here, she’d be able to tell us what’s going on, but I’ve sent her away on a diplomatic mission.”

 

“We could see if Chanterelle knows anything about it,” Luigi suggested, recalling the overlap between their fields.

 

Peach nodded, “It’s worth a shot. Toad! Please summon Chanterelle and get her down here as quick as you can!”

 

Toad bowed and took off with two guards, heading straight out to Chanterelle’s laboratory. The remaining guards stayed back to guard the Princess.

 

Mario played with his mustache a bit, “This world is magical; has anything like this happened before?”

 

“Nothing like this; I’ve no idea what could be doing this. Paintings… Paintings…” Peach was combing through her memory in an attempt to remember anything she could.

 

It wasn’t long before Chanterelle arrived, “I’m here, my Princess.” She then opened up a pouch she had brought with her and pulled out a little device with two coils poking out from the top. She flipped a comically large switch protruding from the left side of it and it hummed, throwing out small arcs of electricity between the coils.

 

“What’s that?” Mario asked, sounding hopeful that Chanterelle knew what she was dealing with.

 

Chanterelle approached the door with device in-hand, “It’s what I like to call an EMF meter. It records electromagnetic frequencies and helps me pinpoint where on the electromagnetic spectrum any of the energy it picks up signatures.”

 

Mario nodded, though Luigi knew he only understood a bit of the explanation, “Right, well, let’s hope it works.”

 

“I doubt it,” Chanterelle flatly stated as she opened the door. The shrieking returned, the sound of the howling wind was even stronger this time, and the sheer force of it all was almost enough to blow Chanterelle’s glasses off of her face. She clasped her orange mushroom hat with one hand as her hair whipped around and grasped her EMF meter with the other. She stepped a little way into the room and began intensely analyzing the screen.

 

Mario shouted over the cacophony of sound coming from the throne room, “Well, she definitely doesn’t show her fear!”

 

Peach leaned over to get closer to Mario’s ear, “Chanterelle is one of a kind. I’ve seen few things ruffle her feathers.”

 

Chanterelle finished looking at her EMF meter, nodding as she recorded the results. She turned around and calmly stepped out of the room as the guards closed the doors behind her. The loud noise coming from the throne room died down once more as she re-adjusted her glasses, “Well, I didn’t get anything with the EMF meter.”

 

The group looked disappointed to hear that.

 

“But I’ve seen enough horror movies to know that what’s going on in your throne room is a good, old-fashioned poltergeist,” she added.

 

Princess Peach nodded, “Right. Well, if that’s the case, we need to get Memaw Portobello.”

 

Everyone nodded in agreement.

 

Peach placed her hand on her chin as she puzzled out her orders, “Alright, I’ve got it. Mario? Luigi? I’ll need you to split up for this. I know it sounds risky, but I need my best on this. Luigi, you and Toad will need to head out tonight. I know it’s late and you are tired, but you’ve got a journey ahead of you.” A guard behind her handed her a map rolled up like a scroll. She took it, unfolded it to review the charted course, then handed it to Luigi, “Follow this map and it’ll take you to Memaw.”

 

Luigi looked quite nervous; this was going to be the first time he was going to be apart from his brother. And in such a strange land too… Luigi always felt uneasy when he was separated from his brother back home, but all of this happening so rapidly was enough to make him feel queasy.

 

“Mario? We need to find out where those paintings came from. You’ll head out to the Port Authority and see what you can find out. I’ll get Officer Stool to join you down there.” Peach turned to Chanterelle and the guards to finish off her series of commands, “Lastly, we all need to lock down the castle. We don’t need a panic on our hands; we’ll keep Spoop Day going on as planned, but we need to keep this castle locked down tight. None enters or leaves the throne room. Make sure all guests tomorrow night stay in the courtyard and ballroom.”

 

The guards all nodded, bowed, and headed off to begin alerting the rest of the guards. Chanterelle went off to her laboratory to work on researching poltergeists to see if she could dig up any additional information beyond what she could find in films. Peach headed off with a small detachment of guards to her situation room, ready to plan the Mushroom Kingdom’s next several moves if need be. This all left Toad, Mario, and Luigi alone.

 

“Well, I’ll wait for you, Luigi,” Toad said as he headed to the main gate.

 

Mario and Luigi clasped each other’s hands. Mario seemed to understand how Luigi felt, despite not showing it as readily as Luigi had, “I’ll see you when you come back, Luigi. Shouldn’t be too long! Less than a day and you’ll be back here to kick some ghost butt!”

 

Luigi nodded, feeling a little bit more confident now that his brother supported him, “You bet, Mario.”

 

The two said their farewells and hurried off. It was time to find out what was causing the ultimate spoop.

 

* * *

 

Officer Stool had been waiting for longer than he thought he should. Then again, he always felt that when he was left waiting on somebody. It didn’t help that he was just made aware of the dire situation in the throne room and now he was just itching to feel like he was doing something to rectify the situation. He tapped his left foot as he checked his watch, waiting in anticipation for Mario and Chanterelle to arrive, “Come on, Mario. What’s taking you so long?”

 

As if to answer, Mario appeared, accompanied by Professor Chanterelle, from the cobblestone road connecting the port to the Autumn Castle, “Hey, Officer Stool! Sorry to keep you waiting, the Professor had to get some equipment.”

 

Officer Stool coughed a bit, feeling a little awkward around Professor Chanterelle, for some reason... “Chan… How are you?”

 

Chanterelle adjusted her glasses, but didn’t look up from a device she was intensely examining. The backlight from the handheld gadget caused a glare to sheen across her glasses as she greeted Officer Stool with a firm rigidity, “Hello, Stool.”

 

Mario paused for a moment, almost as if he could detect a hint of tension between the two, “Right, well; you know what’s going on in the throne room?”

 

“Yes,” Stool answered, finally shifting his gaze from Chanterelle to Mario, “it’s haunted or something.”

 

“Poltergeist,” Chanterelle flatly corrected Officer Stool.

 

“Yeah, and we believe its source or whatever is coming from the paintings we hung up in the throne room today. Princess Peach says the ship that delivered the paintings is docked here at the port,” Mario explained further, just to ensure everyone was on the same page.

 

Much like how Mario could detect a tensions between Chanterelle and Stool, the Officer could also glean something from Mario's subtle mannerisms. He was talking more urgently than normal, and he put a lot of effort into explaining things. It was more than a general concern about the castle or potential harm to the partygoers tomorrow night. No, it appeared to be more personal; Officer Stool then noted that it was the first time Mario had been separated from his brother since they had arrived to the Mushroom Kingdom. Not only that, but it was also the first time Princess Peach was threatened by something that was not easily and readily solved or beaten.

 

Sweet mushroom caps! Was Mario sweet on Princess Peach? Stool would have to keep an eye on that development. But he quickly snapped out of his solent speculation, focusing on the task at hand, “Well, we should check out the manifest and travelogs in the customs office.”

 

Mario and Chanterelle nodded in agreement and followed his lead down the port’s wooden wharf, which was a comprised of a series of docks flanked on both sides with various restaurants, stores, and general tourist attractions that had closed for the night. At the very end was the customs office, which was the only building along the entire wharf that had a light on. It was there that the investigation could begin.

 

* * *

 

Luigi was starting to see why this location was called Bootown. The yellow-brick path that they had taken out of Mushroom Kingdom capital had seemed to transition to a bleak road without his even noticing. A mixture of large, sickly-looking mushrooms and dead trees dotted the landscape. The marshy soil was only broken up by the occasional cobblestone road or large boulder. While exciting to see more of the strange world he had fallen into, Luigi was concerned that his first foray into it was such a horrifying landscape.

 

“Now that we’re getting close, I thought I’d share some info with you. I know you’re a bit of a scaredy-pants,” Toad started with a frankness that took Luigi off guard. Was he really so timid that even Toad had noticed? He wasn’t there during the Halloween story was he?

 

“I am not,” Luigi replied with a faint amount of indignation.

 

“Yeah, y’are. You’ve been shakin’ in your boots for the past quarter of a mile,” Toad replied.

 

Luigi was beginning to get a little annoyed and flustered.

 

“Anyway, as I was sayin’, this place is a little creepy — even Princess Peach feels a little weird comin’ here, to be honest. So keep on your guard. She doesn’t scare easy, so if she feels uneasy here you should be too,” Toad cautioned Luigi and slowed down his pace a bit, allowing Luigi to take the lead a bit.

 

Luigi knew he had to do this, but there was a loud voice in the back of his head yelling for him to just turn around. Somehow, the voice seemed to be so confident that a poltergeist and potential supernatural usurping of the Autumn Throne was better than Luigi just finding Memaw Portobello in Bootown. In order to channel that nervous energy, he forced himself to ask a question, “So why is it called Bootown?”

 

Toad cocked his head as they trekked along the cobblestone road, passing an assortment of dead trees and gnarly mushrooms, “Well, to be honest? Most of that is before my time. From what I understand, Princess Peach’s ancestors built it to honor some sort of treaty. It’s a different town in the Mushroom kingdom and so I think you’ll be able to see how different this land can get,” Toad shuddered a bit. “Not all of the villages and towns in the Mushroom Kingdom are just made up of Toads. And even then, not all Toads are the same.”

 

Luigi was curious and a bit perturbed by that, “Different how?”

 

“You’ll see just up ahead..”

 

Luigi turned his head to see that they were approaching the outskirts of a small village made up of no more than maybe eighteen houses and a few farms dotted throughout. The gardens and fields seemed to be growing smaller, but equally as strange breeds of mushrooms. The houses looked… strange, to say the least.

 

The two travelers arrived in the town square, which was a small circular plaza with sizable public well located directly in the center. A small Toad was perched on the ring of the well, looking down into its mouth as though it were trying to spot something.

 

Toad coughed to get the little toad his attention, “Ahem, hey there. Can you point us in the direction of the Embassy Manor?”

 

Luigi got a good look at the toad now. Instead of colored spots on his cap and ornate and vibrant clothes the young toad’s cap was splashed with monochromatic spots and he was adorned with a thin, loose garb that was draped over his torso. It was layered, so as to not be revealing, but it gave him a slightly ethereal presence. What’s more, Luigi was certainly not prepared for the way the toad would speak. It was not nearly as a familiar form of speech that the other toads spoke.

 

“Pardon, thou bid me a question, good sir? I was partaking ‘n the splendor of the reflection of the well water and didst not catch thy crave,” the toad replied, asking Toad to repeat his query.

 

Toad sighed, trying not to get frustrated with the way this toad talked, “I was just wondering where the Embassy Manor is.”

 

“Oh! Of course! The embassy manor is located up towards the big hill, just north-west of hither! 'Twas that all thou wanted to wot?” the toad answered.

 

“Yes, that’ll be all. Thanks for the help.”

 

“I am glad to hast been of assistance.  I shall be hither if thou require further help,” the toad replied, tipping his head in acknowledgment and respect. He then turned back around and continued studying the bottom of the well.

 

Toad had already begun stepping away when Luigi realized they were on the move again. Luigi had so many questions now, “Why do they talk like that?”

 

“Cuz they’re Midnight Toads.”

 

“Midnight Toads?” Luigi asked.

 

“Yeah, they have an entirely different culture from us. Politeness is their top priority. They also happen to have a unique history. But Memaw Portobello will be able to fill you in better than I ever could,” he explained.

 

The two didn’t have to walk long before they arrived at the gate to the Embassy Manor. It was a sight to behold: an enormous mansion speckled with rows of windows that created an eerie rhythm across the face of the old structure. From the mansion’s grounds was a somber cavalcade of vines reaching to the second and third stories, seemingly maintained for a solemn natural beauty. This beautiful image was bathed with both moonlight and dim, delicate rays stretching from the horizon to glaze the embassy.

 

“Here we are,” Toad said with an air of caution.

 

Luigi was both enamored with its beauty but also felt fear building within him. He wanted to cut that off before it became too much, “Let’s head in.”

 

“Alright,” Toad stated, somewhat spooked now that they had finally arrived at the mansion.

 

The two approached the front double-doors, which were shielded from the moonlight by a sizable marble awning. This meant that the only illumination on the door came from two gas lanterns suspended by dainty, decorative chains bolted to the walls on each side.

 

“They really seem to be going for that old-timey touch,” Luigi exclaimed, pushing passed his fears as he reached for the door handle.

 

“Strange that there aren’t any guards. They’re supposed to be here…” Toad observed with concern.

 

As Luigi opened the door, they found themselves confronted with a line of toad guards, all of whom looked similar to the toad they had seen back out in the town. They were all adorned in armored garbs and bore baroque swords, lances, and crossbows. All of the guards were barricaded behind an assortment of furniture facing all inner rooms of the mansion.

 

“Thee th’re, visitors! Fall hither for our protection!” one of the guards yelled out, motioning Toad and Luigi to come towards them.

 

They hurried over, worried as to why the guards had fashioned defenses in the grand foyer. Luigi crouched behind the barricade and took a quick glance up the stairs and at both sets of first-story doors on each side of the staircase, “What’s goin’ on here, guys?”

 

The guard captain stepped forward, adorned in with a series of thin metallic arms — similar to spearheads — forming a crescent around her mushroom cap, “Ah, so thou haven't been summoned hither? ‘Tis most concerning.”

 

Another guard chimed in, “We've been opposing most adamant foes f'r the bett'r parteth of tonight. We hadst desired our messeng'r hadst arriv'd at thy Autumn Castle, yet we feareth that gent didst not composeth it.”

 

The guard-captain nodded, with a few decorative tassels jostling off the arms of her cap, “Aye! Most of our comrades hast been overrun all throughout the mansion.  The fair ambassador, High Mage Memaw Portobello, is somewhere 'i the manor depths. We've only been able to establish a perimeter hither and the ranker village is unaware of the situation.”

 

“Who are you fighting?” Toad asked.

 

“Dastardly aberrations hast poured out of paintings throughout the manor!” and as if to prove the guard-captain’s claim, three mighty ghosts came down the main staircase. Their movements were not some floaty spectacle, but instead a macabre slither down the steps. They encroached upon the toads’ position and began flinging any spare furniture at them. Neither Luigi nor Toad knew exactly what to do, but it seemed that the guards knew. They sprang forth, firing their crossbows and slashing at them. While it did not seem to deal any damage to the ghosts, the morbid creatures seemed to pull back away from the toads’ weapons. As the toads asserted their control over the grand foyer for now, the guard-captain fell back behind the barricade to ask Luigi and Toad, “They'll return in greater number soon enough. What is thine mission, pray tell?”

 

“We’re here to find Memaw Portobello. You said she’s back there?” Luigi asked.

 

“Aye,” the guard-captain answered with a bit of disappointment, “Thouest welcome to wander through the manor 'till thou find the Fair Ambassador, so long as thou have thine wits about you.”

 

“Shall we giveth the weapon to hir?” a guard asked the captain. The guard-captain nodded and turned about to pull a weapon out of a nearby chest. It looked as though it were a vacuum cleaner, but it had a slot in the back that seemed to house technology neither Toad nor Luigi had ever seen before.

 

“This weapon?” she lifted it a bit to draw Luigi and Toad’s attention to it, “'Tis fandian in nature, given to us by the Fair Ambassador herself before we were partitioned and disbanded. The weapon is powered by this; doth not laugh,” she said as she pulled out a cookie. One of the cookies Memaw Portobello was cooking not a week ago! But the guard-captain crumbled it into pieces to reveal a small canister that glowed a beautiful, vivid pink. She then took the canister and popped it into the power back of the vacuum cleaner. She then handed it to Luigi, who finally got a close look at the device. On it was a label which read “Poltergust 3000,”  on it.

 

Luigi slipped the Poltergust 3000 on, which clung to him via an assortment of clamps and belts. The vacuum cleaner looked like one of Chanterelle’s inventions which, now that he knew there was significant overlap in the scientific and magical fields in the Mushroom Kingdom, made an abundance of sense.

 

After Luigi was fitted with the Poltergust 3000 and was prepared to push into the depths of the Embassy Manor, the guard-captain patted him on the back, clanked on the Poltergust’s tank, “Lasteth did we see Memaw, the lady wast locat'd nearest the attic. While you moveth through it, keepeth an eye out f'r any of mine own guards. Anon, receiveth in th're and vacuum up some ghosts! Godspeed!”

 

* * *

 

Mario and his gang found themselves accompanied by a pudgy little toad harbor master with a mustache big enough to declare his seniority and authority without much of a challenge. Mario wondered how the little man could even see, as his jaunty nautical hat wrapped around his standard mushroom cap and seemed to shield his eyes. What’s more, the harbor master chattered and yammered the entire time they made their way to the Sararsaland cargo ship.

 

“-and that’s when I quit smokin’. If I was gonna get the boys down at the yard to quit, I figured I was gonna be their role model. What I didn’t know was how much it would improve everybody’s mood. Our overall efficiency has improved by over one hundred percent in the past month. Which has really taken the stress off me and the boys, so we’ve gotten quality bonding time. All this time I’ve been the port’s harbor master I didn’t even know if anyone else enjoyed water polo as much as me. Turns out most everybody here has been following the water polo world championships for years. We’ve got a lot-”

 

“Looks like we’re here,” Officer Stool groaned, visibly relieved that the talking can stop.

 

“Oh, well, yep! You have my permission to board and check it out! Good luck, y’all!” the Harbor Master departed, almost as though he was also inconvenienced and annoyed by his own prattling.

 

Mario was relieved they could get on the ship and get to the bottom of the whole ordeal. The sun was starting to come up and they were just now starting to investigate this thing so, to him, the faster the better, “Alright, thank goodness that’s over. Let’s get on there and snoop around a bit!”

 

Officer Stool and Professor Chanterelle agreed and joined him as they crossed over the small plank functioning as a sort of makeshift gangway between the dock and the wooden galleon. The ship gently bobbed up and down in the water and, to Mario and the gang’s surprise, was rather quiet. Not one person was to be seen up on the deck. Not a single soul.

 

“Where is everyone?” Officer Stool puzzled as he checked a bunch of barrels. They were empty.

 

Mario approached the captain’s quarters, “Maybe the captain is asleep?”

 

Without saying a word, Chanterelle knocked on the door. After a brief pause and no answer, she simply opened the door without any effort.

 

“Chanterelle! You can’t just break and enter!” Officer Stool scolded.

 

“Didn’t break anything, so it’s just entering,” she flatly replied as she stepped into the room.

 

Mario couldn’t argue with that logic and so he just shrugged and followed her inside. Stool trailed in as well, but was obviously peeved that the two ignored what he had said. As the three of them entered the captain’s quarters, they found that the place was torn asunder. No sign of the captain, but plenty of signs that someone had ripped through all their belongings as they searched through the room. It was a disaster, furniture flipped over, books cast off the shelves and onto the floor, thousands of sheets of paper littered the place like fresh snow.

 

Both Mario and Officer Stool began pouring over the room to try and puzzle out what happened. All the while, Chanterelle had settled down on a stool by the quarters’ window, beeping away at her gizmos.

 

“Aren’t you gonna help, Chanterelle?” Stool asked.

 

“You’re a public servant. Serve,” Chanterelle grumbled as she beeped away. She looked up to see his displeasure and realized that maybe she shouldn’t be so dismissive this time, “Sorry, just looking at the readings to see if I can find any EM signatures that are off. If this is the source, I’ll detect something.”

 

Officer Stool maintained a cold, stern stare at Chanterelle for a few more moments before resuming his investigating. “Seems someone was lookin’ for somethin’ in here. There’s a methodology to what was thrown about as they searched. The majority of the destruction is centered on this desk, so in all likelihood whatever they were looking for was a document or somethin’,” Officer Stool observed as they looked around. He frowned, looking over the mess, “I don’t even know where to start… If we knew what they were looking or it would be easier! But at this rate all we can do is gather everything up and see if we can figure out what’s missing…”

 

“And what if there isn’t?” Mario asked, not exactly enthused at the idea of spending the rest of the night doing what was essentially filing and organizing paperwork, that was more Luigi’s bag.

 

“Then,” Officer Stool said gravely, “we’ve reached a _dead end_.”

 

A sudden and unexplainable clap of thunder rang out, startling the trio, who whirled around in time to catch sight of the figure standing in the doorway, already sinking back into shadow as the glow of the mysterious bolt of lightning faded.

 

“Halt!” Officer Stool ordered, though the figure showed no sign of moving, “Identify yourself! Who are you? What happened here?”

 

The figure said nothing. A creeping sense of dread and unease began to pervade the room. Mario felt a shiver, was it getting cold in here? Or was he imagining it? His attention was then divided by an odd series of beeps coming from Chanterelle's device.

 

The advisor furrowed her brow, turning the device over in her hands, “That doesn’t make sense… I’ve never seen a reading like this before. It's almost like a ghost, but not quite...?”

 

Officer Stool swallowed audibly, raising his nearly forgotten flashlight along the dimly lit floor to the shadows where the figure stood. Slowly the circle of light crept closer, first falling over a pair of oddly pristine white sneakers, worn on a pair of oddly pristine white legs, attached to an oddly pristine white shell, attached… to an… oddly. Pristine. White-  
  
**SKULL.**

 

The trio screamed. Or, well, Mario and Stool screamed. Chanterelle seemed unphased. Nevertheless, this seemed to set off something in their skeletal observer and the- what was it? A skeleton Koopa? Skellekoopa?- whatever it was made a low dry groan and lunged clumsily at the group.

 

With his totally manly cry of fear warping into a battle cry, Mario rushed to meet his foe! What was he even scared of? Some old bones?! He was practically a superhero in this dimension! And hadn’t he promised to help Princess Peach? To protect her people and her kingdom from the forces of evil!? Putting his week of practice to good use, he leapt nimbly over the skeleton, sticking the landing he snatched a large discarded book off the floor and threw it at the turtle. The heavy tome proved to be a good improvised weapon as it beaned the creature right in the… um... the bean, and scattered it into hundreds of boney pieces!

 

“Wa-Hoo!” Mario cheered. Victory!

 

“I wouldn’t celebrate just yet!” Officer Stool warbled, flashlight pointing at the doorway where two more skeletons were dragging their bulk through the wooden frame, “This is crazy! We never covered this in the academy!”

 

Mario scooped up the fallen skeleton’s leg and pointed it, shodden foot and all, at the new monsters, “Too bad for them! I have a _bone_ to pick!” grinning at his own tremendously clever pun the stocky plumber ran to meet his new opponents, wielding the leg like a baseball bat. He’d show them how they did things in Brooklyn!

 

The two skeletons fell with just as much ease as the first had and in short order Mario was standing over an impressive bone pile, gloating over his victory. Yeah it might have been weird and they did need to get to the bottom of this nonsense but he was allowed a moment! Before he could savor it further, however, his improvised weapon gave a shudder, Mario stumbled as the thing seemed to lurch forward, tugging away from his hand. He grit his teeth, boots sliding slowly on the wooden floor despite his pulling against the unseen force. A telling rattle, almost melodic caught his attention and he noticed the scattered bones bouncing and jittering towards one another.  
  
The leg finally wrenched its way out of his hand and flew across the room to snap back into place at the hip of its newly reformed owner, standing beside its equally reformed goons.  
  
“That’s not good…” Mario said slowly.  
  
“I’ll tell you what’s worse.” Chanterelle said flatly as her little machine started to beep in rapid warning.

 

“Oh now what!” Officer Stool demanded, from where he had taken refuge from behind a toppled table.

 

The chill in the air returned in earnest and the gas lights on the wall began to flicker, growing dimmer and dimmer with each passing second, as a white, bulbous, shape began to push its way through the solid wall. Around the cabin other large white orb like forms were phasing in through the floor, ceiling and walls. One of them popped free from the bookcase just beside Mario, with an almost comedic bouncing sound, wiggling as it resumed its perfectly round shape.

 

As the plumber watched two beedy, black, pit like, eyes popped open and a long, wide, sharp-toothed grin spread across what was now clearly a face, a long bloated tongue lolling out just scant inches from his face.  
  
The monstrosity started at him, its smile growing wider,  “ **_EEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEEEEEE_ ** _!!!”_

 

* * *

 

Luigi and Toad tip-toed sheepishly down the maze of hallways in the Embassy Manor. Luigi grasped the Poltergust 3000 tightly to his chest as he shook with a combination of fear and anticipation. For the duration of their expedition, the two had not said a word. Instead they listened to the sporadic soundscape crawl into their ears. For just a moment Luigi would swear he heard inaudible murmuring right next to him, but he would jerk and turn his head to find nothing there. Hollow cries of anguish just around a corner, but as they turn it there would be nothing save for the dying echoes. And some rooms that they entered would be empty, but filled with an indescribable coldness starting and ending at the doorway.

 

All around them was evidence of vandalism. Furniture was thrown all over the place, papers strewn about the floor like carpeting, and even some damage to the wallpaper. The mansion would definitely need repairs when all was said and done.

  
Luigi turned his head to see if Toad was still following him. The utter reticence between them was becoming a bit oppressive, especially with the ambience surrounding them. Toad’s entire job was to guide Luigi to Memaw Portobello, but he had been quiet the entire time. Luigi had to break the silence, so he whispered to Toad, “Looks like the same thing happening at the Autumn Castle is goin’ on here.”  
  
Toad’s voice silently squeaked for a bit, but he managed to muster a reply, “Yeah.” Toad paused for a moment, looking around at where the they were located, “I dunno where we are. Everything looks so different now that everything’s been torn up.”

 

Suddenly, out from the wall came a ghost. Its beady eyes glared at him as its wide mouth stretched to an enormous size, exposing gnarly teeth and a probing tongue. It let out a shrieking laugh as it startled both Luigi and Toad. The creature recovered from its fit and summoned no language as it hissed and moaned at them. Suddenly, a nearby wall sconce ripped out from the wall and flew at them, nearly striking Toad before embedding itself the wooden wall behind him.

 

Luigi floundered a bit, but as soon as Toad was nearly struck by the threatening phantom, he commanded control over his wits. He whirled the nozzle towards the ghost and flicked the switch on the Poltergust 3000. The spectre’s face twisted and contorted in indescribable ways as it was sucked up into the supernatural vacuum cleaner. Not but a feint whimper echoed out in haunting, pulsating reverberance was left of the foul horror.

 

“Well, it worked,” Toad said as he regained his composure.

 

An abrupt shout rang out from a close proximity but an unknown direction. Neither Luigi nor Toad could discern if it was a product of the endless hallways or some sort of abnormal distortion of sound, but they opted to stick together in pursuit of the source. As they did, more and more phantasms spilled out from behind the walls to assault the two adventurers. Luigi couldn’t tell if it was courage or autopilot that guided his actions, but he managed to push through the ghosts, imprisoning them in the Poltergust’s pull as they made their way toward the shout.

 

As they advanced down the hallway, they saw a room up ahead that was uncharacteristically illuminated — at least, compared to all the other rooms they had investigated. They ran, chased by the aberrations as they crashed through the doorway to find Memaw Portobello with two other spectres!

  
“Move away, Memaw! I have this under control!” Luigi shouted as he whipped the nozzle of the Poltergust. Nothing happened as he flipped the switch. Nothing. All hope and color drained from his face. This couldn’t have happened. He was so close to doing it. He didn’t do all of this, walk miles in the wilderness at night, waltz through a scary manor, and fight literal _ghosts_ just to have a vacuum cleaner fail to hoover up trash!

 

“Don’t worry! They’re with me,” Memaw assured Luigi and Toad.

 

“What?” Toad exclaimed.

 

One of the ghosts, who had a much more inviting face daintily hovered before them. She floated before Luigi, almost close enough for him to feel her long eyelashes. She spoke with a soft, creamy voice — almost sultry — which felt… strange and off-putting to Luigi.

 

“Please, do relax. Bootler? Do away with the rabble outside, if you like.”

 

The ghost by the name of Bootler, who was adorned with a fine suit and tie, nodded, which meant adjusting the yaw of his entire body ever-so-slightly, before answering in an equally creamy and sultry voice, albeit more aged and refined, “Of course, Lady Bow.” He then turned to face the doorway, which was about to become crammed full of malicious beings intent on killing everyone inside. He raised the small nubs for arms and let out an extraneous shriek, which was completely devoid of relation to his speaking voice. As he did so, the spectral forces converging on their location faded out of sight. They were nowhere to be seen.

 

Bootler turned back to face his spectators. He was visibly worn out and haggard after that display. “Please,” he gasped for air, “do continue, m’lady,” Bootler urged Lady Bow to continue.

 

Lady Bow turned herself a little bit away, as if to flick her hair, which instead served to flick exquisit, lacey pair of red ribbons attached to her, “Now, then! We have much to discuss. Who are you?”

 

Luigi coughed to clear his throat and he removed his green plumber’s hat to reveal his thick, curly hair, “I’m Luigi and this is Toad. We were sent by Princess Peach to try and find out what’s going on with all the ghosts around here.”

 

“Ghosts?” Lady Bow seemed briefly offended, though she seemed to figure out that Luigi meant nothing by that description, “Oh, please, m’dear. We are called Boos. We are _not ghosts_.”

 

“Boos?” Luigi asked, surprised to hear such a name.

 

Memaw put her arms on her hips and scolded Toad, “You didn’t even tell Luigi what they are called? Did you tell him _anything_?”

 

Toad rubbed the back of his head as he scrounged for an excuse to hide his shame, “W-well, I-”

 

“Well nothin’! Your fear of Boos has no bearing on the fact that you should have filled Luigi in on this.”

 

“Princess Peach didn’t either,” Toad whined.

 

“Well, I doubt she knew exactly what we’re dealing with. This is the first time in over an age that this has happened. But you knew you were headed here. Why couldn’t you have said something?”

 

“Please, Memaw. I love you to bits, but this isn’t the time,” Lady Bow chuckled as the argument died down a bit. She then floated upward a bit and looked down at Luigi, Toad, and Memaw Portobello, “Now, let me explain what’s going on.”

 

“Please! The Autumn Castle and the Princess are in danger!” Luigi shouted, “Is there anything that we can do?

 

“We Boos come from another land called the Paranormal Dimension. Many, many years ago our two lands were engaged in a sickly war against one another. I won’t bore you with the details, but a peace treaty was signed by a prince of the Mushroom Kingdom and one of our current leaders, King Boo,” Lady Bow explained. She then fluttered lower to the ground, as if she were weary for the next bit of her tale, “King Boo was a fair leader for a time and married another, influential Boo, Queen Boo. She was much more revolutionary than King Boo. Unfortunately, there was a falling-out over the company the king kept. They have since been at war within the Paranormal Dimension.”

 

“Yes. Think of it has a rather nasty divorce.” Bootler added, having recovered from whatever magic he had used to stop the assaulting Boos.

 

“Yes and the company that King Boo keeps is not the greatest. But the war between the two sides has been dreadful, with many Boos having been suspended in lengthy time-out hexes,” Lady Bow continued to explain.

 

“Time-out hexes?” Toad asked.

 

Bootler chose to relate the concept to Toad, “We, as Boos, do not die. We simply get popped into a pocket dimension where we are forced to wait until someone either frees us — which is rather costly — or our time is up and we can rejoin our fellow Boos.”

 

“And the company that King Boo keeps is none other than Bowser himself. They’ve been helping each other with their two conflicts. Bowser helps King Boo with the civil war in the Paranormal Dimension. And now King Boo is helping Bowser with his terrorizing of the Mushroom Kingdom!” Memaw Portobello explained.

 

“So you’re on Queen Boo’s side?” Luigi asked with a hint of suspicion.

 

“Of course,” Lady Bow bowed a bit, “Queen Boo is a just and fair queen. She cannot stand that King Boo would attack the Mushroom Kingdom and violate an age old peace.”

 

“And we are ready to help you put an end to the assault, both here and at the Autumn Castle,” Bootler added, now fully rested.

 

Luigi stepped away for a moment to think. If these Boos were telling the truth, Princess Peach would definitely need to know. If Mario could find out how these Boos are arriving, they could prevent such an attack in the future. Luigi turned back around to meet the gazes of both Bootler and Lady Bow, “Alright. Let’s go kick some bad Boo butt!”

 

Memaw Portobello opened up her side-satchel and plucked a cookie out of it. Much like the guard-captain, she crumbled it to reveal the tiny little container within.

 

“Why is it in the cookies?” Luigi asked.

 

Memaw Portobello smirked as she inserted the capsule into the Poltergust 3000, “They have to be baked with love, so the cookies make it easy.”

 

“What’s the scientific reasoning for that?” Luigi asked, recalling his discussion with Chanterelle.

 

“Oh, there isn’t any. That’s just magic,” Memaw Portobello said.

 

The line between science and magic in this strange world was so blurry to Luigi, he began to grow frustrated with how ambiguous the two terms were. A single device could be one part magic and two parts technology?. A vacuum that sucks up ghosts in scientific, but the power-source is magic and the Boos are magic too? Where does one start and the other begin? At any rate, Luigi knew he had to focus on the task at hand.

 

“Are you going to be joining us back to the Autumn Castle, Lady Bow? Bootler?” Memaw Portobello asked as she gathered her belongings.

 

“Yes, of course! We would want Princess Peach to hear of this issue directly from our mouths anyway,” Lady Bow said.

 

Bootler nodded, “Agreed.”

 

Luigi and company departed the room and found their way back to the grand foyer. Along the way, they banished and captured several of King Boos minions and rallied any Midnight guards that they could. When they reunited with the guard-captain’s troops, she was visibly relieved to see that Luigi and Toad has succeeded. She sheethed her blade and approached the group, “There they be! It's pleasing to see thou return and with the Fair Ambassadors and mine guards no less! I thank thou ten-fold!”

 

“Fair Ambassadors?” Luigi scratched his nose.

 

“Aye, Lady Bow beest Queen Bow’s personal ambassador,” the guard-captain answered.

 

Was EVERYONE aware of the Boos except for Luigi? Luigi let the nozzle of the Poltergust 3000 drop to his side as he stepped away from the group. Toad and Memaw Portobello were informing the guards of the situation and what to do, but Luigi needed a moment to collect himself. His quest was far from being finished, but he had done a lot more than he had expected from himself. In a sense, Luigi had become a genuine ghostbuster! He recalled his sob story about Halloween from yesterday and felt a bit foolish. Maybe he was a little braver than he gave himself credit… That couldn’t be it…

 

“You work on behalf of Princess Peach?” Lady Bow asked as she, too, floated away from the crowd to join Luigi.

 

“I guess I do, yeah,” Luigi said, taking off his hat.

 

Lady Bow put the hat back onto Luigi’s head and laughed, “I’m not important enough for you to do that.” The two then sat in silence for a moment, looking up at the sky. Dusk was settling in, bathing the sky in a faint orange. Lady Bow sighed and began to float again, “Well, if it makes you feel any better, Princess Peach is a good leader. One of the best in the world. As a newcomer, you lucked out. At least you didn’t pop into Bowser’s kingdom… Or the Paranormal Dimension!”

 

“How’d you know I was new?”

 

“Well, you still sometimes gawk at the toads as if you can’t believe they are standing in front of you,” she laughed. “Plus you didn’t know what we Boos were.”

 

“Oh for Pete’s sake!” Luigi couldn’t help but laugh his frustrations away.

 

Lady Bow raised her arms as though she were engaged in fistacuffs, “Well, let’s go save your new home from the bad Boos!”

 

* * *

 

Mario and the gang came to in the hold of the cargo ship — a meddle shell gently bobbing up and down in the ocean water. Almost immediately they discovered that the real crew of the ship had been replaced with the ghost and… skeleton crew. They had been taken care of, but they were obviously still very distressed.

 

“Now stay put!,” one of the Boos shouted as they closed and locked the hatch. The gang were now trapped in the hold, which was illuminated with a single, dimly-lit gas lantern.

 

A human man donning a large, frilly captain’s hat coughed and hacked for a moment, then began to speak, “So they got you too? Rats.”

 

Mario was surprised to see another human. For the week he had been in the Mushroom Kingdom, the only other human he had seen besides Luigi was Princess Peach. In a sense, he was delighted — even in this dire situation.

 

“We were,” Officer Stool grumbled as he examined the hatch.

 

Chanterelle had been muttering to herself almost the entire time they had been apprehended, but she elevated her voice to get Mario and Stool’s attention, “ _Boos_! I should have known it was Boos!”

 

“Yeah, we saw the Boos, Chanterelle,” Officer Stool glowered as he gave up on the hatch.

 

Chanterelle turned to Mario, ignoring Stool’s chastising remark, “Mario! You know anything about Boos?”

 

“Not really, no.”

 

The captain of the ship offered Mario an explanation, “Boos are ghost-like creatures from a land called the ‘Paranormal Dimension.’ They aren’t usually seen outside of there and a select few places out in the rest of the world.”

 

Chanterelle nodded in agreement, “And they’re the ones doing all this.”

 

“All of this is quite bad,” a soft and wispy voice echoed out.

 

Turning towards the sound Mario and company was surprised to see what looked like another Boo. On reflex the stocky man took on a fighting posture, despite that having done them no good not long ago, but at least he would go down swinging! Yet, that was short-lived, something about this Boo was different. In a way he kind of reminded Mario of his brother, he seemed sort of down and... mopey? Instead of a gleeful and malicious expression he wore a despondent and sad one. Also, was it his imagination or did the little guy seem less ‘solid’ than the other ghosts had been?

 

The lone Boo let out a frightful wail as Officer Stool pitched a bucket through his incaporial noggin, plopping down into a puddle of sadness on the floor.

 

Mario stood there in the awkward silence that followed.

 

“You know that doesn’t work, right?” Chantrell chidded and Officer Stool humphed, “Besides, I don’t think this one is much of a threat.”

 

The puddle Boo wibbled.

 

“I don’t get it,” Mario thought out loud, “I mean, I guess I don’t know much about Boos or nothin’ but, what is this guy even doing here?” He looked too their odd companion, “Are you supposed to be a guard?”

 

“I’m a prisoner!” The Boo wailed, floating back up off the floor.

 

“Uh,” Mario looked at him quizzically, “But you’re a ghost or something right? I saw your buddies float through walls and you don’t seem too solid yourself. So why don’t you just leave?”  
  
“The other Boos would capture me again!” the little spirit told him, “And when they do, King Boo will make my punishment ten times- NO! A HUNDRED TIMES worse! I’ll be in time-out for millenia! I won't even have anything to _reeeeead!_ ”

 

Mario, Chanterelle, Stool, and the captured Crew all shared confounded and sceptical looks with one another.

  
“Okay little fella, calm down,” Mario tried to calm the Boo down. Why couldn’t Luigi be here? He was the more diplomatic one! Mario was a more hands on kind of guy, “Why don’t you start by telling us your name?” 

“Klaus,” the Boo replied, floating closer and offering a little nub of an arm/hand for Mario to shake, “My name is Klaus.”  
  
“So what are you doing in here Kalus?” Officer Stool demanded, “What did you do to get ganged up on by your buddies?”  
  
“No no! They’re not my friends!” Klaus insisted, “I was sent here by Queen Boo herself! I’m usually a…. Well a spy you see. I’m difficult to find! So she sent me here to deliver a vital message to Princess Peach incase her official emissaries didn’t make it!”  
  
Officer Stool’s eyes, which had narrowed at the word “spy”, opened wide, “For the Princess? If your queen had to send you — if she was that worried her emissaries might be stopped — something must be very wrong!” his eyes narrowed again, “But then, how did you get caught?”  
  
Klaus wilted, “Just bad luck.” He admitted sheepishly, “See, you know that we Boos can move between some of the worlds yes?” The group sans Mario, nodded at the obviousness of the statement, “It helps if you have a portal or a focus of some kind! That’s what the other Boos are doing! Their allies here swapped out the paintings for enchanted copies, so they can pass directly into your kingdom undetected! Without a focus like that, you don’t know where you might end up!” He bobbed about sadly in the air, “That’s what happened to me. I tried to sneak into one of the paintings, get past enemy lines, directly into the palace if I could! But the painting I chose wasn’t where it was supposed to be and I passed through directly into a circle of King Boo’s loyalists and… well… here I am.”

 

Mario played with his mustache in thought, “That does sound bad. We need to get out of here, like now.” He looked at the defeated Boo, “Klaus, we can’t do anything from in here. But you can! If you can just grab the keys from a guard we can all sneak out of here and get to the Princess before it's too late!”

 

Klaus quivered, “I… I suppose I can try?” His little features screwed up in determination, “I will! I won’t I mustn't let me Queen down!” before Mario could wonder at his sudden burst of courage Klaus began to fade before his eyes until he was nearly invisible, unless you knew where to look you probably wouldn’t see him at all! Swiftly the Boo flosted to the ceiling, squeezing up through the floorboards like a spectral marshmallow.

 

* * *

 

Above the hold in the captain’s cabin was a lone Dry Bones who meandered about. He was supposed to be guarding the room, but instead he amused himself by trying on several of the former captain’s fancy frilly hats. He looked quite good in the, if he did say so himself!  
  
He was so distracted, entertained by his own reflection in the mirror nailed to the far wall, that he didn’t notice the nearly transparent, faintly luminous,  puff ball that glided up behind him, and didn’t even notice the faint jingle when it stole his keys. Tried to go back through the floor, only to find the keys wouldn’t pass through. Come back up. Take the keys again, and bobble embarrassingly out the open door.

 

“Not a bad job,” Officer Stool conceded, when the Boo returned, keys floating about inside his spectral form, “Now we just need to get out of here.”  
  
“Agreed,” Mario conquered, “Klaus?”

 

“Right!” Klaus chimed, pulling the keys out of his belly and plopping them in Mario’s hand.  
  
The plumber went blue in the face and the creepy, clammy, feeling of the keys, even through his gloves! Yuck!  
  
“We really don’t have time for this,” Chanterelle scold, grabbing the keys without so much as a change in expression and began freeing the crew from their chains, “Figure out how we’re getting out of here and let's beat it.”

 

Mario tapped his foot, thinking as hard as he could. There were tons of Boos and skelle-turtles on the ship and their previous encounter had proved that just beating them up didn’t work. So then… What did they do? What was it Mama Mario used to say? Sometimes the simplest solution was the best solution?  
  
A sly smile formed on his face as his eyes caught sight of the lone porthole near the top of the cell.  
  
“So, since you guys are sailors and all,” He mused, “How good are you at swimming?”  


* * *

 

Less than five minutes later a sodden crew, Mario, Officer Stool, and a VERY displeased and drenched Professor Chanterelle pulled themselves out of the water and onto the far doc, out of sight of the ship.  
  
“By the time they notice we’re gone we’ll be halfway to the castle.” Mario gloated, wringing sea water out of his hat.  
  
Officer Stool spared an incredulous glance at Klaus, the only dry one among them, “Hey… why didn’t you just go through the floor of the boat and sneak away under water?”  
  
Klaus flushed blue in embarrassment, “I… I’m scared of the ocean…”

 

* * *

 

Princess Peach was relieved to have been able to move the festivities out to the garden, with only the Spoop Day feast being held indoors — and that was at the end of the day. That hopefully gave the Mario brothers enough time to fulfill their quests. In the meantime Peach juggled the responsibilities of an event planner and a military commander.

 

Boos poured out of the paintings in the throne and it was a challenge to keep them at bay. Peach had taken some time to study anything documented about the Midnight War and found that one of the only effective weapons against apparitions from the Paranormal Dimension were made of materials _from_ there. She and her guards combed through the entire amory to find any weapons still leftover from the conflict and were only able to find a few. To her forces’ advantage, however, the Boos could not determine which weapons were of Midnight origin and which were not. As such, entire battle elements of toad guards could contain an excursion of Boos with one or two weapons, forcing them to retreat back into their beachhead in the throne room.

 

The throne room… Peach knew that it was something that shouldn’t matter too much from a pragmatic perspective, but the fact that the throne room was so easily captured by these invaders was a slap in the face. They had taken _her_ throne. Her place of business. And, for all intents and purposes, her _home_. She dwelled on that matter for longer than she liked and it wasn’t until a guard-captain came in to inform her of the ongoing situation that she was able to shake off those feelings. The feelings of being personally slighted.

 

“My most fair Princess, the Boos are beginning to catch wise to our tactics. Should we fall back to a more defensible position in the courtyard?”

 

Peach clenched her gloved fist, the sound of the fabric tightening as she did so stood out in the cold, still air. The poltergeist was growing more powerful. This had to stop. “Ready the troops for my presence. I shall take part in the battle.”

 

“But Prince-”

 

“I will not sit idly by as these invaders sit on my throne and threaten our people, guard-captain,” Peach restated, much more firmly this time.

 

The guard-captain nodded to show he understood, even if he had reservations about the Princess’ safety, “Of course, m’lady.” He bowed and excited to alert the troops.

 

Peach took no time to armor herself. There was no point. Instead, however, she grabbed a parasol that had been found in the armory. Some of the troops were surprised to have found it down there. But after some time, Peach had found out what it was. It would serve her well. The only thing she did was grasp her leather belt, sword and scabbard attached, and tie it tightly around her waist, which served to keep her dress more tightly bound to her legs. She was prepared for battle…

 

*****

Mario and Luigi both managed to arrive at the main gate at roughly the same time, with both parties joining each other with the intent of assisting the Autumn Castle. Professor Chanterelle and Memaw Portobello greeted each other with fondness, Lady Bow and Bootler were delighted to see Klaus was safe, Mario and Luigi hugged each other with the elation of a family reunion, and Officer Stool stood alone, arms crossed, grumbling about the safety of Princess Peach.

 

Their reunions were cut short as they noticed the faint sound of battle reverberating from the Autumn Castle courtyard. The Mario Brothers and their band of friends charged through the main gates, which were left unguarded due to the mayhem within. Inside were toads bashing apart Dry Bones that would only inevitably reform and being terrorized by Boos. In the center of the main cluster of battle was Princess Peach, who wielded a parasol bearing a hidden blade.

 

“We gotta help them!” both Mario and Luigi shouted in unison. Now was the time for the Mario Brothers to finally work together again. The band charged in and stood along both sides of Peach, forming a line. For a moment, they unknowingly struck a heroic pose; Mario, fists clenched and ready to sprint; Luigi, Poltergust 3000 at the ready, a rare determined look on his face; Officer Stool, brandishing his flashlight like a nightstick; Chantrell, EM reader at the ready, already tracking possible invisible enemies; Memaw, healing cookies gripped like tasty shuriken; Lady Bow, pulling her spectral ribbons from her ghostly form, ready to tie up fallen Dry Bones so they couldn’t pull themselves back together; Bootler, clearing his throat in preparation for a powerful ghostly wail; and Klaus, the spy, a non-combat guy, uncertain of what he might do but determined nonetheless!

 

Just as quickly the instant was over and they were charging into the fray.

 

Princess Peach swung her parasol, hidden blade in the top shattering a Dry Bones to pieces, she smiled in relief when Lady Bow zipped past, leaving a neatly wrapped pile of struggling bones.

 

“Thank goodness!” the Princess cried, her smile turned to one of focus and she ran for the rampart, scaling it in two graceful leaps, raising her sword in one hand, laying the parasol over her shoulder with the other she shouted, her voice echoing off the garden walls, “Do not falter! The enemy may think they have us on the run, but they do not! Our reinforcements have arrived! Let us teach these cowards a lesson they will not soon forget!” In unison with the cheers of her soldiers Princess Peach leapt from the wall, bounding off of several Para-Bones, scattering them apart, before gracefully floating the rest of the way to the ground.

 

Inspired by the Princess’ confidence in them the Brothers Mario went into action. Mario focused on scattering the Dry Bones, and leaping up high to smite their flying comrades, trusting the others to gather them up so they couldn’t reform. Luigi kept his eyes on the Boos, intimidating though they might be, catching everyone he could with the Poltergust. Periodically Bootler would come to his aid, bellowing a phantasmal shriek that dissipated or disoriented his country folk, making them easy pickings.

 

“Watch out!” Cried Professor Chanterelle, her EM raidar beeping in warning, and Luigi spun about in time to see a great swarm of Boos barreling down at him from above, “Oh no!”

 

Suddenly a translucent figure darted in the way. It was Klaus! The little Boo narrowed his little eyes and drew a breath puffing up his cheeks, suddenly his form wavered and snapped, growing over a story tall, a terrifying visage twisted in a hideous laugh reared up at the descending spectral cloud. The swarm of Boos warbled in unison bumping into each other in fear as they tried to get away from this sudden giant specter.

 

They were easy pickings after that. As the remaining foes were cleaned up, the battle turned into a rapid, concentrated effort to remove all evidence that any of it had even happened. Toad guards had gathered all the rope they could to wrap the Dry Bones’ remainders together, preventing them from coming back together. Bootler finished banishing the remaining Boos scattered throughout the courtyard, throne room, and Luigi’s Poltergust 3000. The endeavor to clean the palace and prepare it for the Spoop Day guests for the party during the night was almost as exhausting as the battle itself. But they did it and as the guests trickled in from the palace gardens, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

 

* * *

 

Later that night, after it was all over, the courtyard was filled with little toad children amusing themselves and each other. Klaus had taken upon himself to entertain them by puffing himself up with the his now classic grimace. However, the part the young toadlings seemed to enjoy most was when he would shrink, which was both audibly and visually reminiscent of a deflating balloon. Each time was punctuated with a chorus of childish laughter.

 

Mario and Luigi sat on the ledge of the castle ramparts that looked down on the courtyard below. It was a long day. No sleep the night before and they had took part in the festivities following the battle against King Boos forces. Now was a time for them to relax. They had spent a short while discussing the things they had done while they were apart, but they had moved on to reminiscing about their childhood in Brooklyn.

 

Princess Peach had been meaning to join them, but she waited a short distance away to let them finish. As they did, Luigi yawned and wished his brother a goodnight. He tiredly lifted himself up and headed to bed. Mario looked down at the courtyard for a while longer, content with what they had accomplished for the day.

 

“Thank you, Mario,” Peach stated as she approached the rampart edge.

 

“It’s no problem, Princess. Both of us are glad to have helped!”

 

Peach crouched down, though she was still a couple of inches above Mario, “Without you and your brother, this castle would have been overrun and Bowser would have beaten us. I’m glad that didn’t happen, Mario. And I’m glad you and your brother are here.”

 

Mario blushed a bit to hear those words come from Peach’s lips. He picked himself up and straightened his shirt and overalls, “Thank you, Peach. Without your help, we’d probably be stuck in some little makeshift hut out the forest.”

 

Peach and Mario both laughed. They were both right, but that only served to build a respect for one another. Peach had proven to be a good leader who could think quickly on her feet and Mario had demonstrated his willingness to help. In a way, the Boos and the events of Spoop Day sort of felt familiar. Like Brooklyn. And that felt… right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew -- this chapter was written pretty quick to make it out on Halloween night! I hope you guys enjoy both our take on the world of Mario, but also our worldbuilding and additions!
> 
> Thanks to Piratelynlyn for his assistance in editing and proofreading! He did it so fast and efficiently at such short notice!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I love getting feedback and comments, so please feel free to drop your thoughts!
> 
> Also, thanks to CC_Writes for helping me find my footing for the first chapter of Champions of the Mushroom Kingdom! Also thanks a bunch to PirateLynLyn for proofreading it as well! I hope to have the next chapter out by Halloween, so see you then!


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